Speech recognition software has seen a number of competitors over the years but in most cases, Dragon comes out tops. Formerly ScanSoft, Nuance have taken over what has come to represent the best commercial voice recognition software product on the market. Sure, there are a number of devices that are beginning to take speech recognition software more seriously but it’s Dragon that has continually been regarded as number 1 in terms of features, functionality and accuracy.
So, why Dragon?
The software has reached a point where it seems a bit silly to keep making claims of up to 99% accurate or 20% more accurate out of the box. The latest version is incredibly accurate from Day 1, so it really becomes about fine-tuning and deep learning associated with the characteristics of your voice. At some stage, Dragon dropped the Dictate and NaturallySpeaking part of the name having established enough groundswell as a brand and possibly in a bid to minimalise. Now, the main logo and Desktop icon is actually a flame. It seems these days it’s cooler to keep subtracting design elements until you’re left with a husk of the original.
Dragons are magical and powerful creatures, typically depicted as fire breathing but often given the ability to fly. So one has to imagine that this symbolic reflection is what the original product was geared towards. Being a new technology, the seeing is believing aspect of talk turning into text without touching a keyboard still impresses people – hence the magic. Then, as a productivity tool, users have tremendous power in being able to get more done in less time. Being able to fly through work is a benefit but it’s always been the fire-breathing part that’s amused most… especially after they’ve felt like they could do so after encountering a frustrating tech support issue.